LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Nov. 8

Our people in the military get 30 days leave once a year. Some of our police officers and firefighters get the same amount. Our politicians don't call it leave; they call it a recess, and it seems a lot more than 30 days. In other words, more time is probably spent on recess than actually working.

When Congress is on recess, our country survives. This means do we really need them?

I would like to see the day when all 50 states unite into one nation. Will I live that long?

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When our politicians talk about cutting our Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, they don't have people like me in the same room.

That's just the way it is.

RICHARD SAFRAN

Pontiac

We all pay for Medicare fraud

A couple from Troy was recently convicted of Medicare fraud. There is s downside to this. Not only did they defraud the government out of supposedly $1 million, they will spend time in prison at our expense. A 10-year sentence means approximately another $400,000 each that comes out of our pockets to support them for the next 10 years.

Because it's Medicare, rarely are assets frozen. Any fines given to recoup the money would be gone by the time they are released. True, they have been stopped, but someone else will just continue doing the same thing.

All that money could have been used for other purposes than paying for their incarceration. Even when they are released from prison will they be able to pay their fines? They probably won't. It would be interesting for a change to see the newspaper print something about someone who was convicted and what happened after prison time. It should be public record and easy to find out. Sadly, this will keep happening, and our Medicare costs will continue to increase as other criminals continue to get rich at our expense.